Decision notice. The Bullying of Disabled Council Staff

[Denise Lloyd]

Not 100% relevant but some of it is does anybody know if this is the latest edition of the Planning Code

 

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/.../G_Part_5_The_Codes_26Feb13.pdf

[Denise Lloyd]

]View the Planning Code - Herefordshire Council

 

 

Not 100% but some of it is does anybody know if this is the latest copy of this? 

[megilleland]

 

]View the Planning Code - Herefordshire Council

 

 

Not 100% but some of it is does anybody know if this is the latest copy of this? 

 

Hello Denise. Not sure what you are looking for, but you may find it in the Herefordshire Council Constitution.

 

All major councils are required by law to prepare and keep an up to date constitution. The constitution explains and regulates how the council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures which are followed to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people.

 

[Denise Lloyd]

That's fine thank you Meggieland -  slightly tongue in cheek efficient transparent and accountable to local people = pah

[flamboyant]

Megilliland, do you know what the implications are for failure to comply with the Constitution? Is the Constitution a legally binding duty?

[megilleland]

Are we talking about councillors or employees or members of the public?

 

In the council

 

2.10.4 Statutory Officers

2.10.4.1 The Council is required by law to designate senior officers as the Head of Paid Service, the Monitoring Officer, the Chief Finance Officer and the Statutory Scrutiny Officer. Neither the Head of Paid Service nor the Chief Finance Officer can also be the Monitoring Officer.

 

2.10.4.2 The Chief Executive is designated as the Head of Paid Service and is responsible for reporting to the Council on how the staff is organised and deployed in the Council.

 

2.10.4.3 The Assistant Director Law, Governance and Resilience is designated as the Monitoring Officer and is responsible for reporting any actual or potential breach of a legal requirement to the Council Meeting or Cabinet, and for dealing with complaints that Councillors have breached the Councillor Code of Conduct by Councillors reporting as necessary to the Audit and Governance Committee. 

 

2.10.4.4 The Chief Officer Finance and Commercial is designated as the Chief Finance Officer (also known as the s.151 Officer) (appointed to fulfil the role set out in that section of the Local Government Act 1972) and is responsible for the proper

administration of the Council’s financial affairs including reporting the actual spending or potential misspending of money to the Council Meeting or Cabinet.

 

2.10.4.5 The Head of Governance is designated as the Statutory Scrutiny Officer and is responsible for promoting the role of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny committees, providing support to the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny committees and their members, and for providing support and guidance to all members and officers of the authority in relation to functions of the authority’s Overview and Scrutiny committees.

 

2.10.4.6 The Council will provide the Head of Paid Service, the Monitoring Officer and the Chief Finance Officer with such Officers, accommodation and other resources as are in the opinion of each of those officers sufficient to allow their individual duties,as specified in law, to be performed.

 

therefore

 

5.4.2.1 The provisions of the Model Code of Conduct for Members apply to all Councillors. A breach of those provisions can be the basis of a complaint to the Monitoring Officer and the Standards Committee. The Employee Code of Conduct is part of the terms of conditions of their employment. Employees are accountable to their Line Manager; they will seek to assist any Member, but they must not be asked by Members to go beyond the bounds of the authority they have been given by their Line Manager. 

 

5.4.2.2 Any dispute over any provision of this protocol in relation to employees should be referred in the first instance to the responsible Head of Service or the Chief Executive. If agreement cannot be reached the Chief Executive will seek to resolve the issue in conjunction with the Leader of the Council and/or the Leader of the appropriate Political Group. Issues relating to employee conduct will be dealt with under disciplinary procedures. Any unresolved dispute relating to a Member’s conduct under this protocol will be determined by the Standards Committee.

 

5.4.2.3 This protocol should be read in conjunction with the the Planning Code and the Protocol on Hospitality and any other policies of the Council, for example the Whistleblowing Policy (Public Interest Disclosure) and the Harassment and Bullying Policy.

 

Also

 

Local authorities have a wide range of powers and duties. National policy is set by central government, but local councils are responsible for all day-to-day services and local matters. They are funded by government grants, Council Tax and business rates.

 

Powers and duties

Local authorities work within the powers laid down under various Acts of Parliament. Their functions are far-reaching. Some are mandatory, which means that the authority must do what is required by law. Others are discretionary, allowing an authority to provide services if it wishes.

 

In certain cases, ministers have powers to ensure consistent standards to safeguard public health or to protect the rights of individual citizens. Where local authorities exceed their statutory powers, they are regarded as acting outside the law and can be challenged in court.

 

The High Court today severely criticised a local authority, Blackpool Borough Council, for acting vindictively to punish a law firm for bringing legal claims against it. The High Court Judge, His Honour Judge Stephen Davies, held that Blackpool Council had abused its powers when it suddenly terminated its lease with the law firm, North Solicitors.

 

Misconduct in public office is an offence at common law triable only on indictment. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It is an offence confined to those who are public office holders and is committed when the office holder acts (or fails to act) in a way that constitutes a breach of the duties of that office.

 

Accountability 

Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.

 

2.3.4.1 Citizens have the right to complain to:

a the Council under its complaints scheme available at main offices and on the website;

b the Ombudsman after using the Council’s own complaints scheme; and

c the Monitoring Officer about a breach of the Councillor Code of Conduct (Part

5 section 1). 

 

[WirralPC]

The Nolan principles have been around for 20 years now. They are the "Seven Principles of Public Life" and apply to central government and elected members. They form part of the councillors' code of conduct in Hereford and elsewhere. See 7. here:

 

http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/documents/s50012918/Councillor%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf

 

They are part of The Localism Act 2011 so may be statutory but I'm not sure. Could be worth investigating though.

[flamboyant]

Megilleland, excellent explaination thank you! I was talking about Council Officers. For example, The reporting code States

 

Any serious concerns that employees have about any aspect of service provision or the conduct of Officers or Members of the Council or others acting on behalf of the Council can be reported under this Policy.

This may be about something that:

a makes Officers feel uncomfortable in terms of known standards, their experience or the standards they believe the Council subscribe to; or

b is against the Council’s Constitution and policies; or

c falls below established standards of practice; or

d amounts to improper conduct

 

If the Council ignore or refuse to investigate a complaint under the WB policy are they in breach of the Constitution?

[megilleland]

If the Council ignore or refuse to investigate a complaint under the WB policy are they in breach of the Constitution?

 

I would have thought so, although not sure what the WB policy is.

 

Ensuring regularity and propriety at the local level

 

27. The principal local checks on regularity and propriety are as follows:

 

• Clarity about who is accountable for resources. Ultimate accountability lies with the full council

• A set of financial duties and rules which require councils to act prudently in their spending

• Internal checks that the rules are followed through the duties on the Chief Finance Officer (section 151 officer) of the council; and external checks by an independent auditor

• Transparency through publication of annual accounts and all spending over £500

 

28. There are legal and formal controls in place to ensure that it is clear who is accountable for the money at the local level. Ultimate accountability lies with the full council (the elected members of the council collectively). The relevant legislation is the Local Government Act 2000 (“the 2000 Actâ€), which introduced governance arrangements based on an executive, either the mayor and cabinet executive or leader and cabinet executive, and the Localism Act 2011 (“the 2011 Actâ€), which allows councils to return to the committee system form of governance.

 

For executive forms of governance, the 2000 Act (and underpinning secondary legislation) provides that the full council sets the budget and policy framework; the executive implements that budget and policy framework. The executive is responsible for proposing the policy framework and budget to full council. For councils that adopt the committee form of governance, the 2011 Act and underpinning regulations will allow local authorities the flexibility to make decisions in full council or delegate decision making to committees, sub committees, other local authorities or officers. The council must make it clear in standing orders how and by whom decisions will be taken. Also under these regulations, the Secretary of State could, by regulation, provide that certain matters are reserved for the full council to decide.

 

29. A system of legal duties requires councillors to spend money with regularity and propriety. Under section 151 of the 1972 Local Government Act, “every local authority shall make arrangements for the proper administration of their financial affairs and shall secure that one of their officers [the section 151 officer or Chief Finance Officer] has responsibility for the administration of those affairs.†The section 151 officer is an important mechanism for holding councils to account, as he/she has duties and powers to alert councillors and the auditor in the case of unlawful expenditure. This role is complemented and reinforced by authorities’ duty under section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to appoint a monitoring officer, who must report to the council when any proposal, decision or omission is likely to lead to contravention of any enactment, rule of law or statutory code. Legislation therefore sets the standards councils must meet and provides an internal check that they have been met. The main duties set out in legislation are summarised in the paragraphs below.

 

and

 

32. There are mechanisms in place for occasions when routine processes fail. The Local Government Finance Act 1988 requires the section 151 officer to issue a report (a section 114 notice) to all councillors if there is unlawful expenditure or an unbalanced budget. The authority’s full council must meet within 21 days of theissuing of the section 114 notice to consider it, and during that period the authority is prohibited from either pursuing the course of action which is the subject of the report (in the case of unlawful expenditure) or entering into new agreements

involving the incurring of expenditure (in the case of an unbalanced budget). Councillors therefore cannot avoid being aware of illegal activity, for which the auditor can pursue them in the courts (sections 17 and 24 of the Audit Commission Act 1998). This is a strong incentive to avoid illegal actions. 

 

You can also use the Local Governmnet Ombudsman to investigate complaints. They have a section on land, leisure and culture, commercial contracts, elections and electoral registers, councillor conduct and standards. You can read some reports here. They say they are impartial, but maybe less so than they used to be.

[WirralPC]

All too often, whistleblowers take their complaints to the prescribed person, who either ignores the complaint or forces the whistleblower to abandon it.

 

Failure to hear a complaint from a whistleblower under the code below would be a breach of the constitution and would implicate anyone involved, no matter how senior, in suppressing the original complaint:

 

 

 

"Any serious concerns that employees have about any aspect of service provision or the conduct of Officers or Members of the Council or others acting on behalf of the Council can be reported under this Policy.

 

This may be about something that:

 

 

a  makes Officers feel uncomfortable in terms of known standards, their experience or the standards they believe the Council subscribe to; or

 

b  is against the Council’s Constitution and policies; or

 

c  falls below established standards of practice; or

 

d  amounts to improper conduct."

 

http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/documents/s50012920/Confidential%20Reporting%20Code.pdf

[WirralPC]

Alarming news reaches me in the form of a statement re: Herefordshire Council, which originates from a very reliable source:

 

"It is rumoured Unison officials coerced one of their own reps at the council to withdraw a live complaint against a senior manager in Geoff Hughes' directorate.

 

 

 

The rep was called into an office by a Unison Area Manager and told that a Unison official had been advised that senior managers were going to dig up information to threaten the complainant's job if they did not withdraw the complaint against the senior manager.

Unison later went on to deny this, stating that the rep had misunderstood what was actually said.  However, the rep in question, sensing collusion, had recorded the meeting, and the senior Unison official is clearly heard to state, 'I will insist they withdraw the threat against you, I will not have a Unison rep being threatened'.  Not sure there is any ambiguity there?

 

If a Unison senior official was told by senior managers at Herefordshire Council to warn the rep to back down and went along with it, surely that would indicate a conspiracy between Unison senior officials and senior managers at Herefordshire Council.  If someone has a complaint against a senior manager, then they should be able to follow the grievance procedure and Unison should assist them in doing that. That's why members pay their subscriptions. The Unison rep was also refused representation by a senior unison officer because the complaint was against a senior manager - also a member of Unison.

The rep complained to Unison Head Office and a haphazard investigation followed, which was aggressive and intimidating towards the rep, possibly in response to them daring to complain about high ranking officials. The investigation was conducted by another senior Unison official without speaking to the rep or requesting any evidence of the complaint.  The official found no case to answer.

The rep launched a tribunal claim, but the senior officials are refusing to witness what they were apparently told and had passed onto the rep. Unison appear to be choosing to demonise the rep in favour of their senior officials - but the transcripts of the tapes will reveal an entirely different story. The essential issue here is: did senior officials of Herefordshire Council threaten an employee or did Unison senior officials make it all up, or were they all in it together?  The question I would be asking myself is 'are employees of Herefordshire Council getting their money's worth from those monthly subscription fees or would they be better going it alone?'  The other issue here is, the employee is disabled..."

 

[Denise Lloyd]

I hope the tapes are securely locked away

[bobby47]

Now if the Council hierarchy really wanted to get to the bottom of this chain of events they'd scroll through all the electronic email communications between all those communicating with one another and quickly resolve this issue.

But they won't! That'll be the last thing they do and if, for some reason they've already had a peep, nothing they've found will ever be disclosed to anyone who might benefit from the evidence. They certainly will not disclose it to the pour soul who's still sat there waiting to learn their fate after taking the decision to blow the whistle.

I'd urge the Whistleblower, if he or she has had the good sense to audio record meetings, to fully disclose their existence to those who want, need and thirst to see the back end of them. If it's not disclosed they may consider it to be not admissible because of the rules of evidence relating to audio recordings.

[WirralPC]

You're right Bob - on the point of the council's capacity to resolve issues or 'learn lessons'.  All the information on the council's systems belongs to the body corporate, or whatever you want to call it, even your emailed request to your mate asking him to put a tenner on AP McCoy in the 3:30 at Cheltenham.

 

But on the point of covert recordings, the employer may consider it to be not admissible, but what about Employment Tribunal judges?

 

A set of accurate records will serve to protect you against potential foul play.  When you're in a conflict situation, if any prior request to managers to provide dual tape recording / verbatim notes / minutes of meetings is turned down, and you suspect manipulation or malpractice, or even if you haven't made a prior request and have initially been fool enough to trust the swine, it may also be possible for the penny to drop, for you to 'see the light' and start covertly recording, without informing the other participant(s) beforehand.  More on ‘covert recordings’ here – Daniel Barnett Employment Law Newsletter (10th March 2014).

 

 

The same case is covered in greater detail here at www.thelawyer.com within this article… admissibility of covert recordings

The Honourable Mr Justice Underhill refused to accept a large amount (39 hours) of covertly recorded material without the material itself, and a transcript.  Had this been provided on application to the court, the outcome may have been very different:

http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2013/0534_12_0102.html

The law is catching up very slowly (after all, it's expenses fiddling Lords and MPs that write and debate it).

One day, the pendulum will swing back the other way and there'll be no hiding place for Herefordshire's, Wirral's (and the wider UK's) crooked, empire building, 4 day a week working, honorarium grabbing, reputation managing public servants.

[flamboyant]

How awful, imagine going into work every day knowing managers hold a threat like that over you, it would certainly fuel paranoia and the stress would be horrendous!

 

Well done Herefordshire Council you have surpassed our expectations! Taxpayers will be pleased Senior Managers are using their positions to threaten people, are they on a bonus?

 

How dysfunctional does this organisation actually have to be before something is done? If the tape clearly says ' I will insist the threat against you is withdrawn' then the rep was clearly issued a threat. The Council should do everything in its power to find out if the Senior Manager did threatened the Rep, from the sounds of it the rep had no reason not to believe what they were told.

[bobby47]

This is what happens when you, me or an organisation begin to dance on the edge of legality. The lines become blurred, personal judgement goes array, others follow the lead and before you know it, you get Unison losing sight of what's right and what's wrong.

Many Councils, ours included, up and down the Country have now crossed the line and the only sensible conclusion is, someone, somewhere who operates in this fashion will one day fall from grace. And when that happens, just like the MP expense scandal, there'll be a huge cultural change in attitude between us and them and heads will roll.

Course, this is of little consolation to the Hereford Council whistleblower and all the many others who've paid the price in trying to hold their ground, not shift it and slide with all the others to that blurred place that is the edge of legality.

As for the audio tapes, one thing I'm certain of, if the Whistleblower has audio tapes then you can bet the Council have gathered a great deal of covert intelligence that'll further demonstrate their slide and place themselves in an extremely difficult position. My guess is, as this sad chapter in Herefordshire public service history nears its conclusion, there'll be lots of shredding, lots of worrying, lots of face to face conversations that might mitigate a past email exchange between one person and another and a great deal of deleting.

[WirralPC]

From where I'm sitting, the bullying referred to throughout this thread continues... but with renewed vigour. Here are the reasons:

 

o councillors gone AWOL

o all sense of a duty of care for junior employees, out the window

o since revelations in Private Eye, a battening down of the hatches

o no accountability seen for previous bullies, so no deterrent, and current incumbents and offenders feel emboldened to continue their collusion and harassment

o managers' eyes firmly on the prize of a fat pay off and a clean bill of health to take to a new unwitting employer if they get 'caught'

o no union to speak of, just hollow shells of human beings, caught acting out a worthless charade

o endorsement granted to the vile bullies through the complete absence of public oversight

[dippyhippy]

This is an absolutely appalling state of affairs.

 

Thank God, this person had the foresight to record the conversation. The length of time this has gone on for is interminable. Whoever this person is, they must be living on their nerves. Convinced that all are now against them. To think that when you put your faith in a union, and they throw you to the wolves like this is beyond.

 

I think we may be getting near to the end of this now. If those tapes do prove inadmissible..... I'd go public. I'd be playing those recordings through a loudhailer on an open top bus all around Herefordshire, for everyone to hear.

[flamboyant]

I certainly wouldn't waste a monthly subscription on Unison, your money's just lining the pockets of more inept Senior managers with different titles who lose sight of the ethos of Unions as soon as their packets and pensions increase.

[bobby47]

'So', said the Psychiatrist, 'pop your clothes off, get naked so that all your emotional barriers can come a tumbling down and let me use an excellent psychiatric tool gifted to my profession by the late and great Carl Jung'.

And I did, and whilst I wasn't entirely comfortable that this Trick Cyclist was also naked and in a clear state of arousal I quickly went along with it in the hope that I could receive the diagnosis and embrace the healing.

'First up' he said, 'Ink Blots'. I produce images of Ink Blots and you tell me what you see. Here's the first. What do you see?' I said, 'Bill Norman, Geoff Hughes and Alistair Neil beating the Council Whistleblower with huge chunks of wood and pointy sticks'.

'And this one?', he enquired. I responded, 'Bill bloody Norman and Geoff bloody Hughes being gifted huge wads of money because they were caused hurt, angst and stress by the Whistleblower, who it had been established was the cause of all the bullying'.

'This one'? 'That'll be Bill Norman and the Unison Rep discussing how to rid themselves of the Whistleblower.

'Excellent', he said, 'we're making excellent progress. What about this Ink Blot. What do you see you delightful fully grown man?'. I said, ' Me, tied, tethered and bound to a bed while three buxom wanton wenches violate my body howling, 'Bill Norman fixed all this up and we've got The Syphillis '.

'Right', he said, 'my guess is you don't like the Council. Am I right?' I said, 'good God you're good. Spot on. What about the healing?'

'Sadly for you there isn't one. You've either gotta smash your keyboard up and stay off line or become a little more pragmatic and grasp the reality that public services are infested by psychopaths and narcissistic sociopaths and there's nothing anyone can do to stop them behaving perfectly naturally.

[dippyhippy]

I do hope all is not lost for our whistleblower.

 

He/she must know that taking on The Council and Unison is a gargantuan task. Nobody would put themselves through all of that stress and worry, unless they really felt there was no other course of action.

 

Of course, the easy option would be to turn away....pretend you have seen nothing.

 

Thank God there are still a few good souls left, who know what integrity means.

 

That is small comfort though, if they have been trampled underfoot by those who seek to keep the truth hidden, in order to protect the guilty.

 

Maybe they should sign up here??

 

Post a transcript of those tapes......????

[GrowlTiger]

Bobby

Bill Norman has the ability to come up with all kinds of contrivances –he is a “law†unto himself.  From my experience of him on Wirral he sided with councillors and although nothing can be proven, allegedly they “supported†each other and of course no minutes were taken.  If you ask for evidence you are told only “high notes†were recorded.   High Notes are not available to the general public as allowing the public to know what the officers and councillors are discussing in private may inhibit their ability to discuss “openly†anything in the future. 

Of course Wirral is now the most open and honest Council in the country – much improved and winning accolades.   Pass me the sick bag!

[flamboyant]

Bobby, hilarious haven't laughed like that in ages!

[dippyhippy]

Good Grief!

 

There are 23 people viewing this page right now!

 

Make that 24!

[flamboyant]

25!

 

Bobby you've still got it! Lol

 

I think someone's popped the link on Twitter!

[WirralPC]

When I checked, the Information Commissioner had changed the link to the Bullying of Disabled People Decision Notice - the one that refers to this case (this happens a lot but I don't know why).

 

Here's the new working link:

 

https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/decision-notices/2014/1020920/fs_50531217.pdf